Cheapest local travel around Oxford

[igloo]

Hi all,

Sometimes I'd like to hop on a local train for a stop or two to go for a walk, take some photographs, etc. So I was wondering what the cheapest way of doing so is. Here's what I've found so far.

• The simplest would be a day return, of course. For one stop along each of the lines these are:
  

  Oxford - Radley     off-peak day return: £3.30 (W3 Both not Mon-Fri before 0900)
  Oxford - Radley     anytime  day return: £4.00
  Oxford - Islip      off-peak day return: £2.20 (B5 Out not Mon-Fri before 0830)
  Oxford - Islip      anytime  day return: £3.20
  Oxford - Tackley    off-peak day return: £3.30 (W4 Both not Mon-Fri before 0845)
  Oxford - Tackley    anytime  day return: £5.90
  Oxford - Hanborough off-peak day return: £2.80 (W4 Both not Mon-Fri before 0845)
  Oxford - Hanborough anytime  day return: £4.10

• I would only use it infrequently, so I assume a season ticket would not be good value.
  
• There is an "Oxfordshire Day Ranger" (Mon-Fri only after 0930), but again at £14.30 it is unlikely to work out cheaper when using local trains as the train frequency is not high enough to make enough journeys easily.
  
• More interesting is "Oxford Evening Out" (All days not before 1850, or earlier from certain stations), at only £3.
  
• Also potentially useful are the "Carnet tickets Oxford / Islip / Bicester Town", offering 9-for-the-price-of-10 on either day return.

Does anyone know of any other tickets that may be useful please?

Also, does the "Oxford Evening Out" validity end at 2359 or 0429? And is it possible to get them from anywhere other than the ticket office?


Thanks
Ian

 

[igloo]

I made myself this diagram so that I could visualise how the fares structure worked. I've attached it in case it's also useful to anyone else. I've also attached the SVG source, but had to zip it up as .svg isn't an acceptable extension on the forum.

Any data could be out-of-date or wrong, of course; use at your own risk!

 

[route:oxford]

Oxford - Islip day return is really handy for cheap parking in Oxford.

 

[OwlMan]

There is the Cherwell valley Rover (weekends & BH only) giving unlimiled travel on FGW between two stations for
Adult

• Banbury - Oxford £3.10
• Banbury - Didcot Parkway £5.30
• Banbury - Reading £7.40

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr323b6f4ef649f0a1637491d6ae3cfb/details.html

 

[igloo]

There is the Cherwell valley Rover (weekends & BH only) giving unlimiled travel on FGW between two stations for
Adult

• Banbury - Oxford £3.10
• Banbury - Didcot Parkway £5.30
• Banbury - Reading £7.40

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr323b6f4ef649f0a1637491d6ae3cfb/details.html

Looks handy, thanks!

I'm a bit confused, though: The map shows Islip and Bicester Town too. Are those included on all 3 options?

 

[igloo]

First Great Western Customer Services pointed out that the Cherwell Valley Day Ranger is FGW-services-only, so there are no trains you could use it on on the Oxford-Islip-Bicester line anyway.

They also confirmed that all 3 ranger tickets are valid until 04:29am the following morning.

Updated png and svg attached.

 

[dave87016]

Another option maybe the Oxfordshire day ranger ( especially if you hold a railcard)